Introduction: Admission to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) constitutes a substantial psychophysical burden for patients and their relatives. Individuals who are critically ill and receive care in the ICU frequently exhibit numerous physical and mental issues stemming from the primary ailment, its complications, and subsequent treatments. This study aimed to assess the quality of life (QoL) for ICU patients in the first and third month after ICU discharge and identify any issues arising from their ICU hospitalization. Material and methods: This was a prospective cohort study. The study participants were adult medical or surgical patients admitted to Intensive Care Units (ICUs) in three public hospitals in Attica in, Greece, from August 2020 to December 2021. The short form (SF)-36 was used to measure QoL. Data collection was performed through telephone interviews during the first and third month after ICU discharge. Results: The study included 43 patients, 34 men and nine women. The mean age was 59.63 years. The average value of the two main categories in the 1st month was: Physical health: at 53.72 and Mental health: at 69.03, while in the 3rd month, it was 62.42 and 72.81, respectively. The duration of mechanical ventilation, high-flow oxygen therapy, and spontaneous breathing in days seemed to be correlated with the Physical Functioning, Pain, and Limitation of the role due to Physical health subscales of SF-36, respectively (p-value <0.05). The total length of hospitalization seemed to have a statistically significant negative correlation with Physical Function and Physical Health subscales (p-value<0.05). Conclusions: An improvement in the QoL of patients was demonstrated three months after discharge from the ICU. Factors such as gender, cause of ICU admission, occurrence or non-occurrence of cardiac arrest, the performance of a tracheostomy, and type of ventilation support should always be considered when assessing the quality of life after ICU hospitalization.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This study did not receive any funding.

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

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The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

Ethical approvals were granted by the "Evangelismos" General Hospital of Athens in Greece, "Hippokration" General Hospital of Athens in Greece, and "Sotiria" Thoracic Diseases Hospital of Athens in Greece (Ref No 83/26-2-2020, 37/10-2-2020, and 27/25-2-202). Data collection and analysis were conducted after obtaining informed, written consent from all patients or their relatives during ICU care and from all patients once they regained competency. Regarding the ethics of this study, the ethical principles described by the Belmont Report (1976) on the rights of research subjects were applied.

I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals.

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I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

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I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable.

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All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors.